Before today, the only way to get a new Windows 10 Mobile phone was to buy the Lumia 950 or 950 XL, which start at $549 and $649, respectively. Now the barrier to entry on a new Windows 10 Mobile handset is considerably lower.
The Microsoft Lumia 550 is officially launching today at a price of $139. The affordable Windows 10 Mobile phone is arriving in Europe first, with launches in “other regions” scheduled for the coming weeks.
As for what you get for your $139, the Lumia 550’s specs are fairly entry-level. The phone packs a 4.7-inch 1280x720 display, 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, 8GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. It’s powered by the combination of a quad-core Snapdragon 210 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a removable 2100mAh battery. Windows phones have never had many problems running on less powerful hardware, though, so the 550 should handle most of your day-to-day tasks without much issue.
Microsoft has been placing a heavy focus on entry-level Windows phones lately in an effort to gain market share in developing countries. The Lumia 550 is the latest example of that endeavor, offering Microsoft’s latest software in a simple, affordable package.